GE Capital team deemed Newtown's "fairy godmother'

Published 10:26 pm, Sunday, July 7, 2013

Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra, center, works with Anne Alzapiedi, of New Milford, Conn., left, and Elizabeth Rallo, of Easton, Conn., Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Alzapiedi and Rallo are part of a four-member team from General Electric that has been assisting the town since April. less

Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra, center, works with Anne Alzapiedi, of New Milford, Conn., left, and Elizabeth Rallo, of Easton, Conn., Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Alzapiedi and Rallo are part of a four-member ... more

Joni Capoccitti, of Milford, Conn., left, and Tom Kelleher of Sandy Hook, are part of a four-member team from General Electric that has since April been assisting the town of Newtown with everything from donations to events to preparation for a new school building. They were photographed working at the Newtown Municipal Center on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. less

Joni Capoccitti, of Milford, Conn., left, and Tom Kelleher of Sandy Hook, are part of a four-member team from General Electric that has since April been assisting the town of Newtown with everything from ... more

Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra, center, works with Anne Alzapiedi, of New Milford, Conn., left, and Elizabeth Rallo, of Easton, Conn., Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Alzapiedi and Rallo are part of a four-member team from General Electric that has been assisting the town since April. less

Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra, center, works with Anne Alzapiedi, of New Milford, Conn., left, and Elizabeth Rallo, of Easton, Conn., Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Alzapiedi and Rallo are part of a four-member ... more

From left, Elizabeth Rallo, of Easton, Conn., left, and Anne Alzapiedi, of New Milford, Conn., work with Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra in her office, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Rallo and Alzapiedi are part of a four-member team from General Electric that since April has been assisting the town. less

From left, Elizabeth Rallo, of Easton, Conn., left, and Anne Alzapiedi, of New Milford, Conn., work with Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra in her office, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Rallo and Alzapiedi are part of ... more

NEWTOWN -- First Selectman Pat Llodra has nothing against stuffed teddy bears or the New York Yankees.

Visits from the nation's highest elected leaders are a special occasion; tens of thousands of condolences from Albany to Argentina are noteworthy gestures.

Multiply those by thousands of similar gifts, dollars and demands, and the workload became so enormous that Llodra, an elected official hailed in Congress for her extraordinary leadership, was crying uncle.

Enter GE Capital.

Three months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, General Electric donated a team of three executives to manage the aftermath of the tragedy, a corporate gift whose value Llodra and her fellow town and school colleagues said was incalculable. The team consists of Anne Alzapiedi, Elizabeth Rallo and Thomas Kelleher, and Joni Capoccitti, a fourth team member who was assigned last month to assist interim Superintendent of Schools John Reed.

"We owe our lives to General Electric for what they've done for this town for free," Board of Education member John Vouros said. "It's unbelievable what they provided us. It's like fairy godmother and godfathers running around doing whatever needs to be done ... We're very fortunate."

More Information

If you need helpTwo of the websites created by the GE Capital team are www.newtowncharities.org and www.onenewtown.orgFor information related to the aftermath of the Dec. 14 shootings, contact GE Newtown project manager Anne Alzapiedi at 203-482-6974.

These are not short-term volunteers. Three are assigned for a year; the financial officer for six months.

GE's initial offer to help came to Llodra in January.

Newtown is home to 150 GE Capital employees, leading to talks between Llodra and company officials on how it could help the town in the short-term and beyond.

Llodra said she told company executives that the demands on the government, schools, and community were so "extraordinary" that skilled management personnel were needed to cope with a broad spectrum of needs -- everything from public relations and fund and event management to longterm recovery.

"We thought things would quiet down in January, and we'd start to feel more in control, but that was not happening," Llodra said. "We were at a loss at how to manage it all."

GE executives created three strategic positions and invited company employees to apply. More than 40 were interviewed.

"We hit the ground running," said Alzapiedi, a human resources professional and former eight-year town manager who is the team's project manager.

In the last three months, the team, based in the Municipal Center, has become the go-to experts on everything from community resources and services for families to answering media inquiries and requests for donations. They are responsible for managing correspondence, gifts and scheduling of appearances and meetings of officials for all things related to the shootings. They were instrumental in the coordination of public information leading up to the Sandy Hook Elementary School task force's decision to raze the existing school and build a new facility on the site.

"There is no handbook or guide to what we're doing," said Kelleher, an 11-year GE veteran who lives in Newtown and has three daughters, 14, 12 and 9.

Assigned to help oversee the more than 50 charitable funds created in the wake of the tragedy, Kelleher said nothing he has done before has had such an effect on his personal life.

"These things we're doing are changing people's lives," said Kelleher, who created a committee to work directly with the charities to comply with state licensing requirements as well as to streamline their operations.

Kelleher created a website -- newtowncharities.org -- to list the charities and help donors select where and how to contribute. He also worked on a single-application process for those seeking financial aid.

"There is hardly a day when people don't bring you to tears," Rallo said of the kindnesses that still continue months after the tragedy.

Rallo is the shepherd of everything from quilts and teddy bears -- the town received 40,000 -- to distribution of thousands of tickets to major sporting and entertainment venues. In mid-July, the Fairfield Hills campus will host Nickelodeon's "Big Rush" concert.

"The outpouring from the world has been amazing, and overwhelming, at the same time," Rallo said.

No task is too small," Capoccitti said of her evolving role assisting Reed with his work.

Beyond precise daily duties, including dealing with correspondence and phone calls, Alzapiedi said the team's primary mission is to be "present" for the people of Newtown, be it a family member of a victim or a Town Hall secretary. She created a website, onenewtown.org, to help citizens connect and share stories and tips about the healing process.

She is assisting the Board of Selectmen with organization of a seven-person permanent memorial committee, 33 citizens applied, and is already considering how best to manage and coordinate observances of the one-year anniversary of the tragedy.

The key to all the work is to be "thoughtful, reflective and really listen," Alzapiedi said.